June 20, 2011

Dad was up all night delivering babies. The first he had to do a C-Section and the baby came out in bad condition. Its heart was beating, but it wasn’t breathing. It lived for about half of an hour and then passed away. They left it in the incubator until the next morning until the nurses finally put it in a box for the family to bury. The second was a woman who had had a previous C-Section, but came in too far long to do another one. She went to 2 other clinics starting at 9:30 pm before coming here. She delivered at 1:30 am. Thankfully, the baby was ok, but it was a tense situation my Dad said. This morning after rounds I went with Dr. Miller the pediatrician to the clinic. Dad had to do 2 hysterectomies, and I did not want to watch! Dr. Miller admitted a few kids with malaria. He also admitted a little boy with Burkett’s lymphoma. He had a large tumor on one cheek and a belly full of tumors. Luckily, it is one of the only types of cancer they can treat here. However, his dad was unhappy when he heard he would have to pay. There was no way Dr. Miller would have turned him away though. Dr. Williams left today. It was sad to see him go. The whole hospital staff serenaded him and prayed for him before he left. After lunch, I went with Dad to the Gyn clinic. It was pretty routine. It seemed like 90% of the people he saw were there because of infertility. Most of the women were their husband’s 2^nd or 3^rd wife, and they had to have more kids so they could be the favorite wife. One woman wanted another baby, but she hadn’t had a child for 21 years! You wonder why these women are just now coming to the doctor. After dinner, Dad had to go in and do a C-Section. I watched, along with 3 other girls about my age. There are a lot of mission kids observing this week. Dad was up until about midnight with a woman who was bleeding with a big fibroid. He hasn’t gotten much sleep at all these last few days.